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| OLD APPLE TREE |
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| WHITE FLOWERING CRABAPPLE |
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| LIGHT PINK CRABAPPLE |
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| NARROW UPRIGHT WHITE CRABAPPLE |
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| ANOTHER PINK CRABAPPLE |
Apples and crabapples are blooming in the orchards, in town and in every hedgerow. The orchards are colorful now, and well worth a drive through. Because commercial apples are heavily pruned to reduce the number of apples they bear, and thus increase the size of the fruit, the trees are not as floriferous as those growing wild or not pruned for production.
Apples are probably the oldest domesticated fruit, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, their use going back many thousands of years, and from the story of The Garden of Eden and all sorts of mythology of many cultures, the apple is an integral part of human history. Now considered more of a snack and desert fruit, apples were in the past major staples, since they could be stored for months if properly cared for. And cider was once a primary use of apples, and cider, both alcoholic (hard cider) and non-alchoholic is still much more popular in England, Europe and elsewhere than in America.
The wild progenitor of the domestic apple is Malus sieversii, in the rose family. The epicenter of the species is in eastern Turkey and wild populations still exist. Many years ago I went on a plant collecting expedition with a scientist from Kazakstan. His home town was Alma Atta, "the mother of apples."
The original species of crabapple, Malus sylvestris, has been hybridized, by both nature and by man, to such an extent with the apple that it is quite difficult to determine where one starts and the other leaves off, but suffice it to say that crabapples generally are ornamentals with small fruits, and apples are grown for their edible fruits. Both are typically grafted to retain their particular hybrid characteristics. The Malus gene pool is very plastic, yielding an endless variety of genetic combinations and traits. There are many thousands of varieties of apples and almost as many varieties of crabapples, so it doesn't pay to try to go into much descriptive detail here.
From an ornamental standpoint. crabapples are available in so many sizes, shapes, and colors, etc. and are so tough and hardy that if one is diligent the right tree can be found for almost any landscape and garden niche.
Apple trees can live for hundred of years, a case in point being that the apple tree that Isaac Newton is said to have sat under while being inspired to develop the Theory of Gravity is still alive and well over four hundred years later in England.
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